Alaska Pipeline

Oil was discovered on Alaska's North Slope in 1967. Soon thereafter, the state of Alaska sold oil leases worth over $900 million, and established royalties that made Alaska one of the richest states in the nation. Before this could happen, oil companies needed an economical way to move the oil to market. Several ideas, such as rail transport and ice-breaking tankers, were rejected. A consortium of oil companies formed the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company to build the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), which included both the pipeline starting in Prudhoe Bay, and the terminal facilities at Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in Alaska. Two major interests opposed the pipeline. Alaska's native people pressed long-standing land claims and threatened to tie up the project in court unless their claims where honored. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 sought to compensate the native peoples for their land, thereby eliminating this hurdle.

Many environmental groups, however, continued to oppose the pipeline, with particular concerns about the environmental impact on wildlife and habitat. Others raised concerns about potential leaks and oil spills along the pipeline at Port Valdez, and as oil traveled through Prince William Sound. Due to these concerns, engineers made several changes to the original pipeline design. Most of the pipeline north of the Yukon River was built above ground to minimize damage to tundra and permafrost. Designs were also incorporated to protect the pipeline in an earthquake, changes that proved their value when the pipeline successfully withstood the magnitude 7.9 Denali earthquake in 2002. Growing needs for domestic oil led Congress to enact the Trans Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act (TAPAA) of 1973. The vote on the bill was a tie in the Senate; Vice President Spiro Agnew broke the tie, which allowed TAPAA to go forward. The act exempted the pipeline system from provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), although environmental laws were followed. Construction began soon thereafter, and was completed in 1977, when the first oil tanker left Port Valdez.

Constructed in 1977, The Trans Alaska Pipeline bisects the Kanuti River near the Dalton Highway.

Some of the environmental concerns were overstated, but the pipeline has still had an effect on the environment. The behavior of animals near construction camps was altered when people fed them, often through garbage dumps, although this did not seem to have had a major impact. Other effects have been controversial. There have been several small leaks of the pipeline. In March 2006 there was a 250,000gallon leak in feeder pipes from British Petroleum's oil field to the pipeline, and the discovery of another leak in the same system in August 2006 shut down the Prudhoe Bay field for months while repairs were [Page 24]made. North Slope oil also spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Perhaps the most profound impact of the TAPS was socioeconomic—Alaska's population and treasury grew rapidly in the 1970s, and oil wealth and the drive to find more oil reserves to pump through the pipeline have had a profound effect on the life and culture of Alaskans.

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